The Districts of Pakistan are the second order administrative divisions of Pakistan. Districts were the third order of administrative divisions, below provinces and "divisions", until the reforms of August 2000, when "divisions" were abolished...

in the Hazara region of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, province of Pakistan with an altitude of around 610 metres (2,001.3 ft) above sea level. Haripur District has the highest Human Development Index of all the districts in the Hazara.

Taxila is a Tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is an important archaeological site.Taxila is situated about northwest of Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi in Panjab; just off the Grand Trunk Road...

was known as "Eastern Gandhara", with its boundaries reaching as far as Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

. Geographically it lies on either side of the Sindu River,(Indus the River Goddess of Rigveda), near the Tarbela Reservoir

Tarbela Dam

Tarbela Dam on the Indus River in Pakistan is the second largest dam in the world by structural volume. It is located in Haripur District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about northwest of Islamabad.The dam is high above the riverbed. The dam forms the Tarbela Reservoir, with a surface area of approximately...

. Most historians believe that the Aryans must have composed a number of Vedic hymns on the banks of Indus. During the kingship of his father Bindusara

Bindusara

Bindusara was the second Mauryan emperor after Chandragupta Maurya. During his reign, the empire expanded southwards. He had two well-known sons, Susima and Ashoka, who were the viceroys of Taxila and Ujjain...

Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...

Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...

ruled this region as governor and, according to Tibetan Buddhist traditional stories,he is died here.

Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang crossed Haripur in 632 AD on his way to Kashmir via Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

and Purshapura ( Modern Peshawar) to be followed by Ou Kong in the middle of the 8th century who described the route as a road that starts from the western gate'of Kashmir and goes to Kien-to-lo, the then Chinese name for Gandhara. According to the Rajatarangini

Rajatarangini

The Rājatarangiṇī is a metrical chronicle of North west of the Indian subcontinent particularly the kings of Kashmir from earliest time written in Sanskrit by Kalhaṇa. The Rājatarangiṇī often has been erroneously referred to as the River of the Kings. In reality what Kalhana means by Rājatarangiṇī...

, when the expeditionary force of Raja Shankar Verman (832–902) sent against King Alkhana of the Gurjara Kingdom was on the way back to Sirinagar, it was attacked by the inhabitants of Hazara. The Raja died as the army was retiring at the direction of Kashmir but his death was concealed from them until the Jhelum Valley was reached. The valley of Haripur was the chief land route to Kashmir from Taxila and Attock to Baraamula, some detailed description of this rout has also been preserved in Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī's Kitab-ul Hind, where it is said to be the best known entrance to Kashmir. This route was undoubtedly one of the most important trade routes given its connection to other well-known ancient trading links leading to Central Asia and China. Today, the road has been reconstructed and renamed as Karakoram Highway. Before Muslim invaders arrived from Central Asia, the region now called Hazara was ruled by the Hindu Rajas on the western border of the powerful kingdom of Kashmir.Later, c. 15th-17th centuries, under the Mughals, Hazara area was generally administered from the Kashmir 'subah' or governorship except for parts of later Haripur plain, which was attached to the Attock administration. Towards the end of Mughal rule, in 1747, Punjab including parts of Hazara and the current Haripur area, came under the rule of the Afghans under Ahmed Shah Durrani. The Abdalis appointed governors to rule the region who were collectors of revenue for various parts of Hazara. In c. 1820–21, Hazara, including Haripur, fell to the Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.-Early life:...

.

Sikh annexation

The Sikhs annexed Hazara in two stages. Upper Hazara suffered a similar fate when the Sikhs took Kashmir from the Barakzai Afghans in 1819.
The town of Haripur (meaning 'Hari's town') was founded in 1822 by Hari Singh Nalwa the Commander-in-Chief of Ranjit Singh's army following advice from Mukkadam Musharaf. On the successful completion of his tenure as Governor of Kashmir in 1821, Pakhli and Damtaur were bestowed upon Nalwa as a jagir in 1822. As soon as Hari Singh Nalwa

Hari Singh Nalwa

Hari Singh Nalwa was Commander-in-chief of the Khalsa, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Multan, Kashmir, Attock, and Peshawar. He led the Sikh Army in freeing Shah Shuja from Kashmir and secured the Koh-i-Nor diamond for Maharaja Ranjit Singh...

received this grant, he built the walled town of Haripur in the heart of the Haripur plain with the fort of Harkishan Garh encircled by a deep trench. The site selected by Hari Singh had previously seen some of the fiercest encounters between Sikhs and the local tribes.

British India

Hari Singh's name and the presence of his fort at Harkishangarh eventually brought a feeling of security to the region. In 1835, Baron Heugel, a German traveller found only remnants of the four-yard thick and 16 yard high wall built to initially protect the town.

The sole example of a planned town in this region until the British built Abbottabad

Abbottabad

Abbottabad is a city located in the Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. The city is situated in the Orash Valley, northeast of the capital Islamabad and east of Peshawar at an altitude of and is the capital of the Abbottabad District...

many years later, Haripur continued to grow and flourish to eventually became a city and later a district.

Haripur once bore the official name of Haripur Hazara and was the capital of Hazara until 1853 when the new capital of Abbottabad was built, named after Indian Army officer James Abbott, the first deputy commissioner of Hazara (1849–1853). In March 1849, the Punjab was annexed by the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

. In Abbott's time as under former Sikh domination, Haripur was the district headquarters of Hazara, but soon after he departed, Abbottabad took its place. Abbott later painted a noted picture of the town of Haripur and its commanding fort of Harkishangarh.

Administration

A Tehsil or Tahsil/Tahasil , also known as Taluk and Mandal, is an administrative division of some country/countries of South Asia....

, or sub-division of Abbottabad District, until 1992 when it separated and became a district in its own right. The district is presently (2010–2011) represented in the provincial assembly

Provincial Assembly of the North-West Frontier Province

The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the unicameral legislative body of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It was established under Article 106 of the Constitution of the Pakistan...

by four elected MPAs. One Member is elected to the National/Federal Assembly from the district.

Haripur District is divided into two tehsils, further subdivided into 44 Union Councils

Union Councils of Pakistan

A sherwan or village council in Pakistan is an elected local government body consisting of 21 councillors, and headed by a nazim and a naib nazim...

of which 15 are urban Union Councils.

Ghazi Tehsil

Ghazi Tehsil is an administrative subdivision of Haripur District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The tehsil, headquartered at the town of Ghazi, is itself subdivided into 7 Union Councils.-References:...

Qazipur is one of the 44 union councils, administrative subdivions, of Haripur District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Qazipur is located at 33°59'34N 72°36'11E and lies to the west of the district capital Haripur-References:...

Sirikot, a word derived from Sir-i-Koh, meaning the top of the hill, is one of the 44 union councils of Haripur District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan...

Kherbara

Haripur Tehsil Proper

Tehsil Haripur comprises the Maidan-e-Hazara and Panjkatha areas. The Hazara Plain, once called Hazara, is bounded by the Gandghar Range in the north west, the Haro River in the west, Siri Bang, Sarara and the Margalla Ranges in the south, the Haro River and its tributary Nilan Stream in the south east, the Jahngra and Chamba villages of Tehsil Havelian in the East and the upper Tanawal on the left bank of the Indus on its northern limits.

Tribes and castes

The main and important tribes living in Haripur District are as under:

Awan , is a South Asian Zamindar tribe, putatively of Arab origin, living predominantly in northern, central, and western parts of Punjab, Pakistan...

Lodhi

Tanoli

Utmanzai

Jadun

Mughal

Tarkheli or Tahirkhel

Mishwani

Gakhar

Dilazak

Panni

Tarin or Turin

Malliyar

Seyad

Dhund

Khattar

Turk (only a few families as Turk is a dying race here in the district)

Bakhshe khel (kundreyala muhalla sec 1 kts & sector no 2)

Besides this there are artisan and menial castes in Haripur, a list of such a castes was given but someone beloging to menial class has deleted it so the readers of this article must now that such a classes have their mumrical position tuching to Gujjar and Awanlike majority.

Changar from Southern Punjab and are Beggars here.

Note:- (It is to request you all that regarding "Tribe and Castes" this is a real picture of district Haripur population. Tribes are listed here based on their numrical majority so please accept the reality and do not delete or re-edit this informative list. Further more it is declared that Rajput is not a caste of Haripur, so please avoid to enlist them as the caste of Haripur)

Natural resources

The area is rich in natural resources and contains two important reservoirs, the Tarbela Dam

Tarbela Dam

Tarbela Dam on the Indus River in Pakistan is the second largest dam in the world by structural volume. It is located in Haripur District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about northwest of Islamabad.The dam is high above the riverbed. The dam forms the Tarbela Reservoir, with a surface area of approximately...

The Hazāra are a Persian-speaking people who mainly live in central Afghanistan. They are overwhelmingly Shia Muslims and comprise the third largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, forming about 18% of the total population...

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

.

Boundary

Geographically, the significance of the district is due to its boundaries that border Mardan District

Mardan District

Mardan is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The city of Mardan is the headquarters of the district. The district also contains the famous archaeological site of Takht Bhai, Jamal Ghari and Sawal Dher.-Administration:...

, centre of the ancient Gandhara civilization in the north west, Abbottabad District in the north east, Mansehra District

Mansehra District

Mansehra District is in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, an area still unofficially known as the Northwest Frontier. Mansehra district and town are named after Man Singh, a leading general of Mughal Emperor Akbar...

in the north, the Margallah hills of Islamabad in the south east, the Swat valley in the north-west as well as the Buner

Buner District

Buner District is a district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.- History :The Buner Valley lies on the Peshawar valley border of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into seven sub-divisions...

Swabi is the capital of Swabi District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 34°7'0N 72°28'0E. Its residents are referred to as 'Swabiwaal.'-Geography:...

districts in the west. Moreover, the Swabi, Mansehra and Abbottabad districts of Hazara, two districts of Punjab province i.e. Attock

Attock District

Attock District is a district in the north-west Punjab Province of Pakistan.The district was created in April 1904 by the merger of Talagang Tehsil in the Jhelum District with the Pindigheb, Fatehjang and Attock tehsils from Rawalpindi District of the Punjab province of British India.Attock...

Rawalpindi is a district of Pakistan in the north of the Punjab province which contains the city of Rawalpindi. The district has an area of . It was part of Rawalpindi Division, until the year 2000 when the division was abolished...

, lie to the southwest and southeast respectively of Haripur district. The Federal Capital Islamabad is also adjacent to the district in the south.

Demographics

As of the 1998 census, Haripur's population was 692,228, but was estimated to have increased to 803,000 in 2005. Of these people, 12.0% live in urban districts with the remaining 88.0% resident in rural areas.

The population is spread over an area of 1725 square kilometres (666 sq mi), with a population density of 401.3 persons per km², this compares to an average population density of 233 persons per km², in the Hazara as whole. The average household size of the district is 6.6 persons compared to 8 at the provincial level. Agriculture is the predominant livelihood of the rural population while the total arable area is 77,370 acres (313.1 km²).

Language

Hindko , also Hindku, or Hinko, is the sixth main regional language of Pakistan. It forms a subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages spoken by Hindkowans in Pakistan and northern India, some Pashtun tribes in Pakistan, as well as by the Hindki people of Afghanistan...

and Urdu are the predominant languages of the district and are spoken by more than 70% of the total population. Other languages spoken include Gojri

Gojri

Gojri, also known as Gujari is a variety of Rajasthani spoken by the Gujjars of Northern-Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.Rajasthani, Marwari and Gujarati are evolved from Gujari. The language was known as Gujjar bhakha or Gurjar Apabhramsha lately. It was used as literary language as early as 12th...

, Potohari, Pashto and Pahaari.

Literacy rate

The overall literacy rate in the Haripur district is 53.7%, substantially higher than the provincial literacy rate in Hazara (35.2%) as a whole. The female literacy rate is only 37.4% compared to male literacy of 63.6%. The urban/rural break down shows that rural literacy is lower (51.4%) than urban literacy (69.7%).

Education

Haripur District has a government funded post graduate college, which provides higher level education, as well as two colleges for girls which are also funded by the government to provide higher education for girls coming from all over the city.

In 2000–2001, Haripur had 907 government primary schools, including 656 for boys and 251 for girls. In addition to government primary schools, 166 mosque schools were also functional in the district during this period.

The 907 government primary schools cater a primary school age population (5–9 years) of 101,670, out of which 52,240 (51.38%) were boys and 49,430 (48.61%) were girls. The ratio of the primary schools with the primary school going age population indicates that there is limited access to primary education. The district had 83 middle schools (56 for boys and 27 for girls), during 2001.

Mosque schools were introduced under the National Education Policy in 1979 at the time of Fifth Five-Year Plan (1978–83). Such establishments are organized on the basis of 20–30 students, normally under one PTC teacher and an Imam of the mosque as staff members. They have a shorter teaching programme (about four hours a day), the same curriculum as primary schools and also teach Quran-e-Nazira (recitation of the Quran). Students qualifying from such schools are eligible for admission to formal schools for higher education.

During 2000–2001, 166 mosque schools (15.47% of the total primary schools) were oprational in the district, while in 1997–1998, this number had increased to 180. Details about the number of teachers and students, curricular activities and performance of these schools are not available. The school age population catered for by the mosque schools is also not available.

Other educational establishments include: Telecom Boy's Public School & College, Hazara Public School & College Haripur, Janah Jamia Public School and college, the Government Higher Secondary School Kakotri, Polytechic College, government commerce college, Progressive International Academy, Khalabat townshp, Quid-e-Azam public School and College, KTS (Haripur), Foundation Public High School, Kangra Colony, Haripur Progressive International Academy, Khalabat township.Shaheen Public School Sikandarpur, The Educators Haripur campus.

Industries

Furthermore, many different size factories exist on the Hatar Industrial Estate. Because of these industries, the district plays an important role in national economic development.

Since Haripur has developed medium and large scale industries, its role in the agricultural field is also important. The district provides fruit and vegetables not only to Peshawar but also to Islamabad and the Punjab.